MCD polls to be held on April 22; counting of votes on April 25

Delhi: Delhi Municipal Corporation elections will be held on 22 April and counting for the same will be held on 25 April.

The announcement was made by State Election Commissioner SK Srivastava.

The BJP, Congress and the AAP are the three main contenders for the polls.

The erstwhile unified MCD was trifurcated in 2012 into North, South and East Municipal Corporation or NDMC, SDMC and EDMC respectively.

The BJP has been ruling the MCD since 2007. The last polls were held in 2012.

The much-awaited polls will decide the fate of 272 councillors. While NDMC and SMDC have 104 seats each, EDMC has 64 seats.

"The polls to the three municipal corporations of Delhi will be held on April 22 and counting will take place on April 25," he said.

Informing that the nomination process will begin from March 27 and April 3 would be the last date for filing nominations, Srivastava said, "Scrutiny of nominations will take place on April 5 and the last date for withdrawal of nomination is April 8."

The commissioner also said the expenditure limit for a candidate has been hiked from Rs 5 lakh to Rs 5.75 lakh.

Incidentally, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal has expressed reservations about electronic voting machines (EVMs) and sought the use of ballot papers in the civic polls.

Asked to respond to Kejriwal seeking the use of traditional mode of exercising franchise, Srivastava said, "Voting through EVMs is very safe. And, if the polls are to be held through ballot then some of the rules have to be amended," as per Kejriwal seeking the use of traditional mode of exercising franchise, Srivastava said, "Voting through EVMs is very safe. And, if the polls are to be held through ballot then some of the rules have to be amended," as per PTI.

"We started the preparations for the polls keeping in mind use of EVMs only. The dates have been assigned accordingly," the State Election Commissioner said.

Kejriwal had earlier directed the chief secretary to ask the state election office for holding MCD elections through ballot papers.

"We have sent our comments to the government on this," Srivastava said.

The total number of electorate for the civic polls stands at 1,32,10,206, which include 73,15,915 men, 58,93,418 women and 793 voters in the other category, the state election commission said.

(With PTI inputs)